All the Arts, All the Time

Music review: Bringuier and Rachlin with the L.A. Philharmonic at Disney Hall

May 30, 2010 | 4:00
pm

Back from its U.S. tour -- which reportedly inspired frenzy from the
audiences and a backlash from many critics -- the Los Angeles
Philharmonic still had one more program to attend to over Memorial Day
weekend. It amounted to an oddly placed epilogue to the 2009-10 season,
but it was also a showcase for the other whiz-kid podium talent on the
Philharmonic roster, associate conductor Lionel Bringuier.

Bringuier
had
come dramatically to the rescue of Gustavo Dudamel on May 6 just
before the tour when Dudamel pulled a neck muscle in the middle of the
concert and couldn’t continue. While Bringuier could only do so much
with Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony without a rehearsal, he easily passed
the test.

This time, Bringuier had his own program – a good one
that spanned much of the 20th century – and his soloist in the Sibelius
Violin Concerto, Julian Rachlin, has a whiz-kid background of his own. Rachlin
recorded the Sibelius in 1992 when he was 17, with no less an
eminence than Lorin Maazel leading the Pittsburgh Symphony. It was not a
session for the ages, being one of the slowest recordings of the piece,
taking forever to get to the point.

The interesting thing about
Rachlin’s performance at the wise old age of 35 Saturday night is that
it remained fundamentally the same – to cite one example, the broad
treatments of the first movement’s soaring tune and its agonizingly
drawn-out aftermath. He obviously had a definite conception from way
back.

The difference is that Rachlin probes more deeply and
convincingly into his conception now – displaying more control over the
long line in the slow movement (which was even slower than before), the
harmonics in the third movement now touched with a knowing slyness.
Also, Bringuier wasn’t as inclined to dawdle as Maazel did in the first
movement’s orchestral interludes, which ran at a good clip toward
explosive climaxes. Rachlin mainly hears the piece through a Romantic
sensibility, and I suspect that Bringuier wanted to bring it forward
into the more objective 20th century. Yet the two conceptions managed to
co-exist, often to each other’s benefit.

Alone in front of the
Philharmonic, Bringuier brought along two more pieces – one very
familiar, the other not so much. “Métaboles” by Henri Dutilleux – who is still very much with us at 94 – is a
rather enigmatic work that is clear in its structure and direction yet
elusive in its not-quite-diatonic, sometimes brooding, sometimes edgy
character. Bringuier produced a deft, sharply pinging response in Walt
Disney Concert Hall, a fine match of hall and score.

Esa-Pekka
Salonen made Stravinsky’s complete “The Firebird” a specialty of the
house during his 17 seasons here – and Bringuier could tap into this
legacy in his rendition of the 1919 Suite while bringing some things of
his own to the table. The Dance of the Firebird could have used a
sprightlier rhythm, but the Infernal Dance hurtled along nicely, and the
Finale’s coda revved into overdrive before concluding the suite, the
concert and the season on a grand note.